Multilingual Education and India

Dear MultiLingual Education friends, It is always joy to hear positive stories from neighbours. The story below is from the neighbouring country, Vietnam. It is interesting to see how nearly 500 students from three minority language groups who are enrolled in bilingual education program,are doing remarkably well. They could catch up with the main stream, Kinh children, in various aspects such as admission to higher level school, drop-out rates, etc.

Dear MultiLingual Education friends, B elow is  the invitation and abstract submission call for 4th International Conference on Language and Education which is held from 6 to 8 Nov, 2013, in Bangkok , Thailand. This conference is hosted by 14 national and international organization this year such as UNESCO, UNICEF, Room to Read, SIL International, etc. Notice that submission deadline of participant’s abstract is by the end of this month and registration deadline is by the end of Aug. (See message from UNESCO below, which includes a list of speakers) Please visit the conference website for detailed information. It will be good to have a good representation from India there!

Dear multilingual education friends, Madia children in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh now have the opportunity to learn different subjects in their mother tongue. This used to be impossible in the past due to the double burden of learning various subjects in unfamiliar languages such as Marathi in Maharashtra or Hindi in Chhattisgarh and learning either language in each state. So the following statement makes sense to them now. “Language (Madia) becomes a major issue in early years of education as it is not just a medium of communication but a link to the entire culture and values of a race.” For the entire article for Madia medium MLE school in early stage in Lok Biradari Ashram School, click the below link. Nurturing one's own language

Dear MLE friends, Global Partnership for Education has uploaded 700+ education photos from around the world on a photo gallery on Flickr. There are 96 photos of schools from different parts of India such as Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, etc. To download those, click the next link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gpforeducation/sets/72157632763865771/ Please don’t forget to give credit to the photographer and GPE ( Global Partnership for Education ) and enjoy watching the photos. 

Dear multilingual education friends, Are you interested in how to integrate different languages in a curriculum? Towards an Integrated Language Curriculum in Early Childhood and Primary Education (3-12 years) is a research report by Jim Cummins et al. in the context of Ireland. Four questions were researched: How can the idea of an integrated language curriculum be defined? What are the key principles of language learning and development which should underpin a language curriculum for children aged 3 to 12 years? Where is the evidence for it in policy and practice? What are the expected outcomes by 8 years of age for children’s learning and development in t

Happy International Mother Language Day! Remembering the International Mother Language Day is a good excuse to also celebrate the two years existence of the MLE and India Web Blog . You have been of great support to make that site work well. Here are some of the statistics: 219 postings 8500 page views, 950 page views last month Most popular page: MLE Related Projects Most Popular Post of last year: "Linguistic imperialism alive and kicking" Viewed from India (1800) ,US (1900), Ukraine (600), Russia (500), China (400), UK (400), etc.

Dear Multilingual Education friends, M TALL ( Mother Tongue B ase Active Language Learning ), an inter-university forum in Jharkhand, is doing very interesting activities such as socio-linguistic survey (findings being re leased within a couple of weeks), children’s bilingual picture dictionaries on 60 child-friendly themes printed in 9 tribal and regional languages, Bhasha Puliya (school language readiness package for pre-school centres)- to be piloted in 10% Anganwadis, School readiness package developed for primary level M TALL involves all major language group experts, related NGOs, media, 5 governme